Mobile internet and SMEs: a focus on the adoption

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the adoption of business to employee (B2e) mobile internet (MI) applications in Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The purpose is twofold: to analyze the diffusion of these applications underlining the main adoption barriers and to describe the impact on the corporate environment and the decision‐making process leading to the introduction of B2e MI applications.

The diffusion of mobile solutions is gauged through a survey of 646 Italian SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Multiple case studies of 28 Italian SMEs that have adopted 33 B2e MI applications have given insight into the impact and the adoption process of such technologies.

The adoption of MI technologies is still limited in Italian SMEs. Two different kinds of solutions (classified into connectivity‐based and application‐based) lead to different processes of adoption.

The study has been conducted only in an Italian scenario. As for the survey, only firms belonging to the manufacturing industry have been interviewed.

The main adoption drivers/constraints have been identified. The paper also provides information and communication technologies vendors with guidelines on how to increase the use of the applications in Italian SMEs.

The paper is based on a double methodology in order to provide a full analysis of the adoption of mobile technologies in a business environment: the survey is used to quantify the adoption of the technologies and the case studies are used to investigate the adoption process.